By Erin Sullivan, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
PORT RICHEY — Authorities say Richard Jesus Pinon, a 45-year-old felon who has served seven stints in prison, broke into a woman's apartment, tied her up and raped her.
Pinon and the 22-year-old woman were acquaintances, said Kevin Doll, spokesman of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office. The woman, whose identity is not being released due to the nature of the allegations, lives in Port Richey. She knew Pinon by his nickname, "New York," Doll said.
The attacker broke into the woman's apartment by cutting a window screen, a report states. Then, according to the Sheriff's Office, he cut the woman's fitted bedsheet into strips and used those strips to tie her hands and feet. He put her in her closet, shut the door and put a TV against it to keep her inside while he ransacked her apartment, pocketing her gold earrings, a diamond engagement ring, a silver ring, a belly button ring, a DVD player and DVDs, her purse, $20 and food, the report states.
"Shut up or I'll kill you," Pinon told the woman, the report states. "I can cut you or f--- you."
The woman told authorities her attacker took her out of the closet, cut off her clothes with a folding knife and raped her.
Then, she said, he gave her a cigarette, told her to count to 1,000 and left.
"Don't call the cops or I will kill you," the man said, the report states.
Pinon told detectives the sex was consensual.
She "tied herself up," he said, the report states.
Pinon was arrested Tuesday and is charged with home invasion robbery with a weapon, sexual battery, false imprisonment and possession of drug paraphernalia. Pinon faces a charge of burglary in the break-in of an unoccupied home in June in Holiday. His first prison sentence was in 1988 when he was 23 and convicted of grand theft and burglary, the same charges that brought him back prison six more times, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.
Pinon, of 9300 Jarman Lane in Port Richey, is being held without bail at the Pasco County jail.
Erin Sullivan can be reached at esullivan@sptimes.com or (727) 869-6229.